AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2016 - 74
Contributing to the accident was the failure of the other
two flight crewmembers either to fully comprehend the
criticality of the fuel state or to communicate their concern
to the captain.
On December 28, 1978, United
Airlines Flight 173, a McDonnell
Douglas DC-8-61, departed Denver,
Colorado, with 181 passengers
and eight crewmembers bound
for Portland, Oregon. The flightplanned time was two hours and 26
minutes, with a scheduled arrival in
Portland at 5:13 p.m. PST. The total
amount of fuel required was 31,900
pounds. The airplane departed with
46,700 pounds of fuel on board,
which included the FAR requirement for fuel to destination plus
45 minutes and a company contingency of about 20 minutes. The
weather was good VFR.
ABNORMAL GEAR
Around 5:10 p.m., as the flight
was descending through 8,000
feet, the first officer, who was flying, asked for approach flaps and
landing gear. The captain recalled,
"It was noticeably unusual and [I]
feel it seemed to go down more
rapidly. As [it is] my recollection,
it was a thump, thump in sound
and feel. I don't recall getting the
red and transient gear-door light.
The thump was much out of the
ordinary for this airplane. It was
noticeably different."
At 5:12:20 p.m., Portland
Approach requested, "United
One-Seven-Three Heavy, contact
the tower, one-one-eight-pointseven." The flight responded,
"Negative, we'll stay with you.
We'll stay at five. We'll maintain
about 170 knots. We got a gear
problem. We'll let you know." The
flight was cleared down to 5,000
feet and given delaying vectors.
According to the NTSB,
"For the next 23 minutes, while
Portland Approach was vectoring the aircraft in holding south
and east of the airport, the crew
74 | AOPA PILOT October 2016
discussed and accomplished all of
the emergency procedures available to them to ensure the gear was
down. The lead flight attendant
was briefed and told to prepare
the cabin for a possible emergency
evacuation. About 5:38 p.m. the
crew contacted the United Airlines
maintenance control center in San
Francisco, California, and the captain explained the situation while
they continued to troubleshoot."
At that time the captain
reported 7,000 pounds of fuel on
board and that he planned to hold
for another 15 or 20 minutes to
prepare the passengers for emergency evacuation. At 5:44 p.m.
United maintenance asked, "OK,
United one-seventy-three, you
estimate that you'll make a landing
about five minutes past the hour. Is
that OK?" The captain responded,
"Yes, that's good ballpark. I'm not
gonna hurry the girls [presumably
referring to the flight attendants].
We got about 165 people on board
and we...want to...take our time and
get everybody ready and then we'll
go." With that ETA, there probably
would have have been less than 15
minutes of fuel remaining.
At 5:50 p.m. the captain asked
the flight engineer to, "Figure
about another 15 minutes." The
first officer responded, "Fifteen
minutes?" To which the captain
replied, "Yeah, give us three or four
thousand pounds on top of zero
fuel weight." The flight engineer
responded, "Not enough. Fifteen
minutes is gonna really run us low
on fuel here." It was the strongest
statement he would make.
At 6:06 p.m., the lead flight
attendant reported the cabin was
ready for an emergency landing.
(This was one minute after the captain said they would be landing.)
The aircraft was 17 miles south
of the airport heading southwest.
The captain said that they would
be landing in about five minutes.
FLAMEOUT!
Just then the first officer said, "I
think you just lost number four."
At 6:06:46 p.m., the first officer told the captain, "We're going
to lose an engine." The captain
replied, "Why?" At 6:06:49 p.m.,
the first officer again stated,
"We're losing an engine." Again
the captain asked, "Why?" The
first officer responded, "Fuel!"
At 6:07:12 p.m., the captain requested "Clearance for an
approach into Two-Eight Left,
now!" This was the first request for
an approach clearance from Flight
173 since the landing-gear problem
began. At 6:07:27 p.m. the flight
engineer stated, "We're going to
lose number three in a minute,
too." The captain responded: "You
got a thousand pounds. You got to."
The flight was now about 18
miles out and headed toward the
airport. At 6:13:21 p.m., the flight
engineer stated, "We've lost two
engines, guys." At 6:13:38 p.m.,
the captain said, "They're all
going. We can't make Troutdale
[a small GA airport nearby]." The
first officer replied, "We can't
make anything." At 6:13:46 p.m.
the captain told the first officer,
"OK. Declare a Mayday." The first
officer advised, "Portland Tower,
United One-Seven-Three Heavy,
Mayday. We're...the engines are
flaming out. We're going down.
We're not going to be able to make
the airport." About 6:15 p.m., the
DC-8 crashed into a wooded area
of suburban Portland about six
nautical miles southeast of the airport. There was no fire.
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